History Lesson: Toms River South Girls Soccer Slams Freehold Twp., Ends 24-Year Shore Final Drought

NEPTUNE — Before playing one of the biggest games in the last quarter-century of their program, the Toms River South girls soccer team made sure to do their history homework.

That was not United States or World History, though; it was Shore Conference soccer history. The Indians players knew no Toms River South girls soccer team had played in a Shore Conference Tournament semifinal since 2013, and it hadn’t reached the championship game since 2002.

More than that, the players were acutely aware that their semifinal opponent Tuesday at Memorial Field in Neptune has its own history of rising to the occasion come tournament time.

Facing a Freehold Township team it defeated on opening night, 10th-seeded Toms River South took nothing for granted on Tuesday and rolled up a 4-0 victory over the No. 11 Patriots to end a 24-year wait between SCT championship appearances. The Indians will take on No. 4 Trinity Hall in Saturday’s championship game in Neptune, with Toms River South also looking to win its second-ever conference championship and first since that 2002 squad finished the job.

“It’s a great feeling,” junior Emma Turnbach said. “This is the best group of girls, and I think everyone knew this was our year that we could get far, and we are showing that we can do what everyone knows we can do.”

Turnbach contributed to all four goals with one scored and three assisted, while classmate Sadie Kartikis contributed a goal and an assist in the win. The two juniors linked up on the first goal, which came from a Kartikis free kick that she whipped off Turnbach’s shoulder and into the net for a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute.

“I thought she was shooting it, so I just tried to run in and distract the defenders, and it happened to hit off my shoulder,” Turnbach said. “But it went in, so a goal is a goal.”

“I was looking for Emma, and it went a little closer to the goal than I thought, but she still got there and scored the goal,” Kartikis said. “I was just thinking, ‘Get it to the corner.’ Either it would be on frame, or someone would get there.”

The next Toms River South strike came on a counter-attack in the 19th, when Turnbach slipped a pass through to junior Sammy Fallon for the finish and a 2-0 lead.

“They all trust each other tremendously,” Toms River South coach Casey Worman said. “Emma has said it over and over again that they are literally the best of friends. It’s hard to find them in school without a teammate. If there is a soccer girl somewhere, there are probably two or three following right behind. They love this game, and they love to do it together, and that’s their motivation.”

Both teams were preparing to head into halftime with Toms River South (13-3) leading, 2-0, but Kartikis had other plans. She collected a pass from Turnbach, turned toward the goal, and slotted a shot into the left-side netting from the top of the 18-yard box with under a minute to go in the first half.

“It boosted our spirits because 2-0 can be a really scary lead,” Kartikis said. “To get that extra one was nice and it definitely got us pumped up. We like to keep the intensity all game, but it’s definitely nice to have an extra goal.”

The Kartikis goal was a back-breaker for a Freehold Township side that already dropped a 3-0 decision to Toms River South on Sept. 1, but has a recent history of winning tournament games against opponents that had the Patriots’ number earlier in the season. Last fall, Freehold Township (9-7-2) dropped a 4-1 decision to eventual 2025 Shore Conference Tournament champion Manalapan during the regular season, then came back and shocked the top-seeded Braves, 1-0, in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV championship game.

“Freehold Township is definitely a team you don’t want to see, especially in the postseason,” Woram said. “We know they are well-coached; they play hard, so we knew coming in that they are a different team than we saw in the first game of the season, and so are we. We came in prepared like we hadn’t seen them yet.”

“We all knew that was our first game,” Turnbach said. “We have changed our style of play and so have they. Everybody knows they are a tournament team: they are always really good in the tournaments every year, so we didn’t want to come in just expecting to win because we already beat them. It was good that we saw it as a brand new game and just put in everything we had.”

Toms River South knew of Freehold Township’s reputation and kept its foot on the gas coming out of halftime. In the third minute of the second half, Turnbach played a deflected pass into the box that made its way to senior Jaelyn Mayne, who skipped a shot off the left post and in for a 4-0 lead 2:28 into the second half.

The Indians hit another post on a shot by junior Daniella Gordon four minutes later and put Freehold Township goalkeeper Violet Matthews under fire for the first 20 minutes of the second half before the game evened out over the final 20.

“We still came in a little nervous, but ready to go and with some confidence from the win earlier in the year,” Kartikis said. “We knew they had had a strong season, so we came into it like any other game: ready to go.”

 

Toms River South opened the season as the No. 1 team in the Shore Sports Insider Girls Soccer Top 10 and justified that ranking with a 5-0 start that included the aforementioned win over semifinal opponent Freehold Township and another SCT semifinalist in Central Regional. Then, the Indians endured a 1-3 stretch in which they lost to Point Pleasant Boro, Toms River East and Ocean, with the last of those losses coming during the SCT group stage and dropping Toms River South to second place in its group.

“Our coach has very high expectations for us,” Turnbach said. “She knows what we can do, and I think as a whole team, we know what we’re capable of, and every game, we try to put that out. I think we had a little bit of a rough patch in the middle of the season. Every team is going to have some rough patches, but we got through it, we overcame it, we changed what we needed to change, and I think we’re rising up to what we can do.”

Since that loss to Ocean, capping a stretch of three losses in four games, Toms River South has rattled off seven straight wins, including a 1-0 win over Saturday’s championship opponent, Trinity Hall. The Indians have defeated Manchester, Rumson-Fair Haven, top-seeded St. John Vianney and Freehold Township by a combined score of 16-2 during their run through the SCT.

“The bumps in the road definitely weren’t fun going through them at the time, but overall they made us a stronger team,” Worman said. “They showed us that every time we step on this field, they have to work, and that’s what they do. They don’t take plays off; they work extremely hard in practice and in games. You pretty much know what you’re going to get out of all of them, and then they give you some extra. That’s all you can ask for as a coach.”